Cathy's Art Diary

Magical lecture from the London Art History Society held at the Art Workers’ Guild on the life and work of Alfonse Mucha. I say magical as it was given by his great grandson Marcus Mucha who now runs the Mucha Foundation. He led us through Mucha’s work from the early graphic design posters, which are his best known work, through to how he used art to further the cause of a free Czech nation, in particular his work on a grand project called   the Slav Epic. He then talked about the history of the collection since Mucha’s death in 1939 and how the family fought to keep it together and out of Nazi then Soviet hands. He outlined the work of the foundation including showing us the museum and plans for a space to finally show the Slav Epic works together.    

Delightful exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool looking at the life and work of Aphonse Mucha the illustrator and artist. These works are so over the top Art Nouveau that it is easy to forget that Mucha was a pioneer and inspirer of the style not the clichéd follower we tend to view his as now. I loved the section looking at his early work designing posters for Sarah Bernardt which became so famous they were stolen from hoardings. I liked the rather Norse poster for Hamlet. There was also a good section on his advertising work with lovely examples of packaging and posters. He was a pioneer of brand recognition through his work with the biscuit maker Lefvre-Utile creating biscuit tins, labels and boxes. The show stresses that he was an egalitarian artist as his work was see by everyone in the streets so it had a wide influence. The show looked at Mucha’s influence across with a heavy emphasis on the local Della Robbia Pottery Company based in Birkenhead. I...